It’s not often that you’re greeted at the door by someone carrying a musket.

Every flat surface in this Etobicoke home was filled with decorative items, collected over a lifetime, to be sold in an estate sale. Some $6,000 was generated in the sale, conducted by the Transition Squad.

It’s not often that you’re greeted at the door by someone carrying a musket. But that’s what happened when I dropped in at a house on Mill Rd. in Markland Woods, an Etobicoke subdivision built in the 1960s.

Viraf Baliwalla, owner of a company called the Transition Squad, was carrying the weapon. “It’s a collectible,” he was quick to assure me. Priced at $40.

He and his assistant, Laura Convery, were preparing the house for an estate sale.

I’m always interested in how people manage to get rid of stuff, especially when they downsize or when adult children have the difficult task of clearing out their parents’ home. That’s why I went out to see how the Transition Squad (transitionsquad.com) conducts a contents sale.

Here’s what they do: Convery, ever mindful of how sensitive this process can be for owners, sorts through everything and sets the prices (after a couple of days of research, including appropriate expert advice on jewelry, for example). The company advertises on its website and with flyers, emails their customer list, buys local TV commercials and posts ads on Kijiji). The sale revenue is split 50-50.

The Transition Squad also has a consignment store at 3200 Dufferin St., Unit 25, where items that don’t sell — such as a vintage Remington typewriter ($150) and Limoges china (71 pieces, $350) at this estate sale — can still find a willing buyer without drastic discounting. Again, proceeds are divided 50/50; prices are set slightly higher in the shop.

Many items had already been removed from the Markland Woods home so the two-storey dwelling could be staged. The closets were virtually empty; most linens and clothes were gone, which Convery and Baliwalla deemed unfortunate.

The place was still choc-a-bloc with objects: some family heirlooms and vintage furniture, including three sets of tables and chairs, some mid-century teak, dishes and glassware, and loads of collectibles.

The former owners, both of whom had passed away, were obviously avid collectors. They appeared to have travelled, acquiring beer steins in Germany, Royal Copenhagen porcelain in Denmark, and blue and white Delft from Holland. Plus they had fine china (including two sets of Limoges), silver (an elaborate coffee and tea set with ornate tray, plus serving dishes) and decorative objects typical of middle-class homes of an earlier era.

The collecting instinct revealed itself most obviously, however, in the hundred or so collectible plates, including Norman Rockwell ($25 each), Kurt Ard ($10), and Chinese Imperial Ching-te Chen ($20), many still in original boxes.

The most sought-after items, Baliwalla reports, included the Chinese collector plates, which, still boxed and with certificates, were selling well below the $50 and up listed on a U.S. website; one buyer bought them all. Russian collector plates were also popular; jewelry is always a good seller; even the assorted dishes and glassware in the kitchen were 80 per cent gone by about 11 a.m.; the beer steins and collector gun went quickly; a $150 tea cart that Baliwalla had repaired was also snapped up.

Can you bargain at a Transition Squad sale? Yes, but usually towards the end and only on items with no reserve price set by the clients, or on goods not appropriate for the consignment store. For example, Baliwalla says, costume jewelry priced at $2 was sold for $1 and small beer steins were offered at a two-for-one price.

No question, there are bargains to be had at content sales. If you’re outfitting a new home, it’s a perfect opportunity to pick up cheap linens, crockery and the like. Convery says people starting out often will buy entire furniture sets. (With beds and mattresses in that spotless home going for $100, and a round dark wood table with five sturdy chairs at $150, there’s value for money.)

The adult children selling the family home were also able to navigate the challenge of dispersing a host of objects loaded with memories in time for a quick closing. It was set for five days after the estate sale.

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